apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

salads, salads, salads, salads and more salads!
oh, and maybe some asparagus and peas and lovely springy things like lamb and, well, salads.
to be honest, I can't think about anything else!

I'm moving. My kitchen will be in boxes. I want to eat anything other than pizza and ramen, and I want it delivered. Please.

With the nice weather (straight to summer, no spring for us) I'll be hitting the barbeque...did pork chops yesterday and planning chicken legs for tomorrow.

Ice cream weather is already here. As the weather warms, I can't get enough of Trader Joe's Fruit Floes popsicles, iced coffee, gin & tonic, and anything lemon or lime.

With the warm weather in Boston, I had to toss out my "to-cook" list of stews and braises. Last night was Chinese style lettuce wraps with ground turkey and water chestnuts, and tonight will probably be hot-smoked salmon with lemon-artichoke pesto over fresh pasta. We've been opening the doors and eating out on the deck, so I'm definitely ready for light, fresh and seasonal recipes, especially using the fresh chives and basil I've already got in the garden!

I want some friggin' barbeque: it's 80 degrees out!

My husband is craving hummus and other easy healthy veggie sandwich fixins, can anyone recommend a good recipe?

Anne, my boyfriend and I love making pita sandwiches with hummus, feta cheese, olives, tomato, and cucumber, garnished with parsley and mint. Other veggie & hummus ideas would be great! Maybe an edamame hummus like the one I used to get from whole foods?

i want nothing but mediterranean food right now: grilled chicken, lemon, tomatoes, olives, cucumbers, rice, chickpeas...any way i can get it. :)

Cream cheese and red pepper make a good veggie sandwich.

Fresh grilled teriyaki chicken breast, sliced, and served warm over baby spring greens, fresh mushroom, sweet red pepper, scallions, fresh dill, with a pear champagne vinigrette dressing....mmm.

Oh, and fresh toasted 7 grain bread with butter....that was tonights dinner.

That picture of basil makes me swoon! Allthemore because it's warm out and possible here in MN...

this is making me very hungry! the pita and hummos/olive/feta sandwiches are inspirational!

I'm also in the mood for salad, but don't want to fork up $7 for a deli tossed one. can you recommend some great way to bring a salad from home? is the trick to keep the dressing separate? And what is a secure type of container to transport it in? (I don't want dressing all over the place.)

I guess i"m asking more questions than answering the initial one, but are there any great summer cookbooks? I often come up empty with summer fare, esp living in the city and not having a grill. Most cooking in the summer makes my kitchen into an oven. Is raw food the way to go?

Eliza,
Bringing a salad to work isn't hard, but I find it can be a little cumbersome. I use an empty film canister for the dressing, wrapped with plastic wrap and nestled in under the lettuce. If there's a lot of wet ingredients (tomatoes, marinated onions, or tuna for salade nicoise), they go in a separate container along with the dressing.

A co-worker uses one of those itty-bitty jam jars you get in gift baskets for her salad dressings.

This is what I did this week for transporting salad to work:
Into the bottom of 1 large square container: sliced English cucumber, then each slice halved, chunks of tomato or halved cherry tomatoes, then shredded lettuce. Half a boiled egg tucked into one corner, a lime wedge into another.
Separately, I had cooked artichoke hearts which I'd been marinating overnight in lemon/olive oil/Dijon. Took some of those in a separate container, with plenty of dressing. At work, mixed everything together. Delicious!
Putting the wet ingredients at the bottom of the container is the trick. Sometimes I just squeeze the lemon or lime juice all over & add olive oil at work (I have a tiny wine bottle where I keep e.v. olive oil for the office).

I sometimes bring my dressing in a ziplock baggie (really!). To fill it, I hang it over a juice glass with one corner down, then I use a twist-tie to try to keep it in that corner. That goes on top of the salad fixings inside my tupperware (inside is important, because this isn't quite leak-proof, and that way it just ends up on the salad anyway). When it's lunchtime, I just snip of the corner and squeeze/pour the dressing out.

all of those ideas sound very doable! Thank you!

I'm craving grains--tabbouleh, lentils and couscous! Anything cool and tangy, with good chunks of cheese and crunchy bits of greens. Oh, yum. I'm sooo happy for spring.

I've got purple asparagus coming in my CSA box tomorrow! Any tips on what to do with them? Are they significantly different than regular asparagus?

Also coming are collard greens and arugala!